The fasteners that hold the wheel
together are not a standard a nut and bolt. They are designed to not be taken
apart. So we have to get medieval! First, center punch all the fasteners that
hold the hub to the outer wheel.

Then
drill out the heads of the bolts. Use a nice sharp bit for this, it will save a
lot of time. I used a cobalt bit. They are more expensive, but well worth it.
They stay sharp much longer.

When you
drill through to the shaft of the bolt the head will come right off.

After you
drill out all of the bolt heads it's on to the rivets around the perimeter.
These rivets are aluminum and much easier to drill than the bolt heads. I center
punched these too so I was drilling right down the center of the rivet.

Now that
all the bolts and rivets are drilled I used a hammer and drift to remove the
bolts from the hub.

After I
removed all of the bolts the star spokes just about fell out.

This is
what we are after; rear hub, drive side...

...rear
hub, brake side.

These are the spoke rings, after water jetting
and before finishing, bolted on to the stock CX500 Comstar rear hub. I wanted to
see how well they fit before finishing.

This is an 18" rim
laced to the spoke rings. I laced the wheel together to make sure everything fit
and the spoke length was correct.

I have sent the
wheel components off for powder coating. Next weekend I will have the finished
wheel assembled.

Parts are
back...

Stock hub powder
coated

Hub with spoke
rings mounted

I trued the rings
on the stand before lacing them, just to be sure they were round.

lace one side at a
time

This is the pattern
for a standard 40 spoke rim. Flip it over and do the same on the other
side.

Now it's ready to
be trued up on the stand.

Now it's
all tightened up and ready for a tire! I will mount that next week.

Spoke wheel with
4.00-18 tire mounted up. The outer diameter is the same as the 16" Comstar with
a 130/90 tire. I really like how the wheel turned out so now I am working on the
front. When the front wheel is finished I will mount them on the bike and see
what it looks like.

Now it's time to
take apart the front 19" front Comstar...

This is the donor
wheel I will be using for the hub.

First remove the
hubcap.

Now you can see the
fasteners that actually hold the hub to the wheel.

The fasteners are
just a nut and bolt with a small rod pressed in to prevent loosening. You can
see the rod in between the bolt and nut on the right side. With a couple of good
12mm wrenches I was able to unscrew the nuts by hand, one of them just broke
off. Either way it doesn't matter, you don't need them. If you can't get them
off this way then you can always cut off the nut with a cutting wheel or drill
out the head of the bolt like I did on the rear wheel.

I used a hammer and
drift to drive out the bolts. They came out pretty easily.

fasteners out

Now you just have
to drill out the rivets around the perimeter. They are aluminum so they come out
easily.

Here is what we are
after. Now I will make spoke rings to fit this front hub. I should have those
ready next week.

This is the new
19" rim and tire I will be using on the front wheel.

I picked up the
front spoke rings from the water jet guy today.

They
fit perfectly! So I measured for and ordered my spokes. Now I need to finish the
corners and spoke holes, then off to powdercoat.

Next week I should
have all the parts ready for assembly. I can't wait to see what my CX500 looks
like with spokes!

The spokes finally
came in. So I laced them up to check fit.

Powder coat
time...

I picked up my
parts from powdercoat, they look great.

The tolerances on the spoke rings are pretty
tight so I needed to sand off the powdercoat on the inside diameter to get a
nice fit.

I mounted a drum sander to my drill press for
this.

They cleaned up nicely and now I have a perfect
fit.

I used nylock nuts to mount the rings to the
hub. I don't want those to loosen up.

Time to lace rim to the hub.

Spokes in place and wheel mounted in truing
stand.

I clamped a bar to
the stand and made a mark to help see the side to side movement and wheel hop.
Both of which you can correct with strategic spoke tightening.

Al tightened up and ready for the tire. I will
mount that up tomorrow and see how it looks on the bike.